July, 2008

Here’s an interesting trend in MMA: a guy beats you in a fight through either a decision or somewhat questionable stoppage. You immediately demand a rematch, but he’d rather not do that because he wants to move on with his career and continue climbing the ladder in the division. So you do what any rational person would do. You accuse him of being scared to fight you again.

Nate Marquardt is the newest member of the ‘Don’t be scared, homey‘ club ever since he told Sherdog recently that Thales Leites is ducking a rematch of their UFC 85 cheat-fest. Marquardt seems to be seizing on the fact that his point deduction for striking to the back of the head was unjustified and conveniently forgetting the other completely illegal stuff he did in that fight, such as the knee to the head of a downed Leites and the piledriver at the end of the fight:

“I’ve never seen a fight like that, never have I had a point taken away for me in any other fight. I believe this was my first,” said Marquardt. “It’s disappointing. Actually he got warned three times for grabbing my glove, the fence and elbowing the back of my head.”

“I’m happy with the way I performed. I know the fans loved it. Honestly, all the controversy over the point deductions and me losing a split decision, everybody who saw the fight knows that I won the fight,” Marquardt said. “In a way it’s been a blessing in disguise. It’s kind of made my popularity go up because everyone is talking about it.”

“I would love a rematch and I asked for it. I doubt he’s going to give me a rematch. I think he’s kind of scared to be honest,” Marquardt said. “He got lucky and knocked me down right away and mounted me. That’s his game, to get to the mount position. What better position for him to land up in? I was able to escape, get back up to my feet and have him rocked by the end of the round. I think he knows that he was kind of outclassed.”

Isn’t it great how MMA fighters are so often convinced that anything effective their opponent managed to do was “lucky”, while their own offense was all skill and superior technique? Maybe that’s the mindset you need to have to fight at that level, but it sure is a very selective thought process. If Marquardt really wants to force that rematch, he may have to up his antics. Derogatory t-shirt calling out Leites, perhaps? I know a place in the mall that could do it cheap.

The UFC’s decision to include the newly-mature Jesse Taylor on their July 19 Fight Night has taken some heat lately. That’s because taking the moral high ground only works if you stick to it even when you desperately need to throw together a show designed to screw with your competitors. But Dana White is doing his best to make the decision to bring Taylor back into the UFC sound like a reasonable one. He’s also trying to battle the perception that the UFC encouraged the fighters to destroy the house and generally act the fool for the cameras.

That’s a lot to accomplish, but some well-placed expletives should do it. Check out what White had to say to Yahoo’s Kevin Iole:

“Whoever told you we encouraged them to tear up the house is (an expletive) liar,” White said. “Nobody ever told them what to do on the show. A lot of guys, they get off the show and they’re embarrassed by what they’ve done. And think about this: I’ve faced a lot of challenges since we’ve had the UFC, but I have a kid (Taylor) who pissed his pants on television and now I have to turn him into a star.”

Wait a minute, why does Dana White “have to” turn Jesse Taylor into a star? Did he make a promise to his mother? I have a hard time believing that the future of the UFC rests on Taylor, whose fights on the show were only slightly more interesting than watching NCAA wrestling on ESPN 2. Let’s be honest, Dana White is choosing to try and turn Taylor into a star (very briefly) in order to capitalize on the name recognition and controversy that he thinks might detract attention from Affliction.

From Sherdog, here’s a video of Quinton Jackson working out at the gym and running down Saturday’s matchup with Forrest Griffin, including why he thinks Forrest’s win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua wasn’t impressive. Juanito Ibarra stops by to say that Forrest will go back to bad habits, and Zach Light attests to Jackson’s hatred of training. We look forward to seeing if Rampage-with-hair is just as fearsome as shiny-domed Rampage.

MMA Rated is reporting that Rich Franklin will move to light-heavyweight to take on Matt Hamill at UFC 88 (September 6th, Atlanta). Franklin spent much of his early career as a 205-pounder, before moving to middleweight in June 2005 when he took the UFC’s 185-pound strap from Evan Tanner. As for the matchup, there’s no danger of Franklin being torn apart by Hamill, Anderson Silva-style, but he’d better start drilling his takedown defense if he wants to avoid being laid on for 15 minutes by the hulking wrestler. And speaking of avoidance, how’s this for self-ownage — Franklin moving up in weight because he’s tired of bashing his face against Anderson Silva’s knees, while Silva is testing the waters at 205 because he cleared out the middleweight division. No matter where Ace goes, Spider is right there waiting, making sure he never gets another belt in his life. Poor guy.

In other news, we previously passed along a rumor that Jesse Taylor and CB Dollaway would fight at UFC Fight Night 14 (July 19th, Las Vegas), and multiplesources are now confirming the matchup. It feels a little premature for both fighters. Dollaway, who would be fighting just four weeks after his loss to Amir Sadollah at the TUF 7 finale, could use more time to cultivate his submission defense, and who knows if Jesse Taylor’s brief stint in AA and a couple months of groveling for Dana White has actually turned him into a stable human being. But it’s the matchup that fans of the show want to see, and it’s happening, whether they’re ready or not.